Sunday, 15 December 2013

Pro-Palestinian Equals Antisemitic

Roger Waters, late of Pink Floyd, has provoked anger with
his outspoken attack on Israeli treatment of Palestinians. What made people
particularly angry was his comparison of Israeli policy towards Palestinians to
Nazi policy towards Jews. The comparison seems to me a fair one: it is only too
common, at personal, national, racial and cultural levels, for the oppressed to
learn from their oppressors and then to use what they have learnt when they get
the chance. The child who gets bullied at school grows up into the school
bully; the sexually abused child becomes an abuser. In South Africa, blacks
liberated from apartheid commit atrocities against whites. It would be
surprising, though pleasing, if Israelis did not look around for a group to
persecute, after centuries of persecution of Jews.

Accusing those who object to Israeli policy of anti-semitism
is a very nasty cynical tactic that is
being used more and more to silence critics. The two things are entirely
separate, as Roger Waters himself makes clear to those who take the trouble to
read what he actually very calmly and articulately said.